A sports scientist wanted to conduct a follow-up study to investigate whether university athletes with high competitive anxiety levels differ from those with low competitive anxiety levels in their physiological and psychological response to public failure. To achieve this, she planned to recruit athletes to perform a complex motor-skills task in a university hall. Without the participants' prior knowledge, she arranged for a large audience of confederates (actors) to mock, jeer, and loudly criticise their performance, while she monitored the participants' heart rate and salivary cortisol levels.
Identify ethical issues in this follow-up study and explain how the scientist could deal with them.
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Scientific processes with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 689 questions, matched to the AQA A Level Psychology (7182) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.
